| Reading opens doors. Not reading slams those doors | | | | That small book of scary stories literally changed the |
| shut. It's as simple - and sad - as that for far too | | | | course of my life. |
| many lives. More than 70 percent of inmates have | | | | I made it through high school with decent grades and |
| limited literacy skills. So many nonreaders wind up in | | | | ended up at the University of California at Berkeley, |
| jail, in fact, that many states use 4th grade reading | | | | where I graduated with honors. After a few years as |
| scores to help calculate future prison needs. | | | | a newspaper reporter, I went into teaching. |
| Reading in elementary school is really that important. | | | | After almost 20 years in the classroom, I started |
| There's nothing more important. Everything else is a | | | | writing children's books with the intent of making |
| distant second. Everything. | | | | reading fun. I've been on tour for nearly two years |
| Yet schools remain full of reluctant readers - mostly | | | | and have read to almost 50,000 students in seven |
| boys and English language learners - and statistics | | | | states and British Columbia. It's been a blast! |
| show that the problem is getting worse. The National | | | | Librarians, principals, teachers, and parents |
| Center for Education Statistics reports that fewer | | | | consistently thank me for reaching kids who don't like |
| than 30 percent of 4th graders nationwide read at a | | | | to read. |
| proficient level and nearly 40 percent cannot | | | | I can see the impact I'm having as I stand in front of |
| demonstrate basic reading skills. In an age of | | | | an auditorium full of kids who share my love of scary |
| enormous advances, reading skills are actually | | | | stories or soccer stories or adventure stories. It's a |
| declining. | | | | great feeling. |
| Growing up, I was a typical reluctant reader. My | | | | And it's not rocket science. An excited reader is a |
| family moved from Argentina to Los Angeles when I | | | | better reader. The more enthusiasm a student feels |
| was four years old and I didn't know English when I | | | | toward books, the more he will read. The more he |
| started school. | | | | reads, the more he improves. |
| I quickly fell behind. I fell behind across the board. But | | | | It has become my mission to reach these kids and |
| mostly I fell behind in reading. | | | | help drive a stake through the heart of those scary |
| I was soon caught in that familiar vicious cycle of not | | | | literacy statistics. |
| liking to read because it made me feel bad about | | | | Here are a few ideas on how to drive some stakes |
| myself. The more I didn't read, the more I fell behind | | | | of your own: |
| and the more I didn't like to read. | | | | Interesting Content: First and foremost, students |
| But one day something magical happened. I found a | | | | need to be reading daily about things that interest |
| book that did the impossible: it got me excited about | | | | them. Soccer, scary stories, skateboards, science |
| reading. I started reading all the books in that genre I | | | | fiction, cars - subjects that have meaning to students |
| could find and at some point found myself in a very | | | | will help get students excited about reading. |
| different cycle. Now the more I read, the better I | | | | Plenty of Time for Reading: Kids must have plenty of |
| became at it. The better I became, the more I read | | | | reading time with the content of their choice every |
| and the better I felt about myself. And the more I | | | | day and this needs to be cultivated at a young age. |
| read. | | | | |